The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of an apparatus for retracting towel loops and an end of a textile or cloth towel into a textile towel dispenser, especially a hand towel dispenser.
Constructions of known towel dispensers are exemplified by Swiss Pat. No. 491,635, granted June 15, 1970, and Swiss Pat. No. 493,247, granted July 15, 1970.
In known textile hand towel dispensers a loop formed by a portion of an elongated towel web or section hangs out from the towel dispenser and the user's hands can be dried thereat. When the towel loop is pulled out at the front of the towel dispenser, a predetermined length of clean towel comes out of the towel dispenser and, at the same time, an equal length of the towel, usually a dirty towel length, is drawn up into the back of the dispenser, keeping the towel loop at the same length.
The following operations occur inside the towel dispenser during the aforementioned operation of advancing the towel: the length of toweling or towel section which is pulled out at the front of the towel dispenser unrolls from a roll of clean toweling and simultaneously turns another roll by means of various rollers and gears upon which the used toweling is wound up.
Hygienically speaking, such towel dispenser system has one distinct disadvantage which occurs after the towel roll of clean toweling has been used up: the end of the roll which is pulled out at the front of the towel dispenser hangs down when it is released, sometimes even reaching the floor. This dangling towel end, as has been found in practice, continues to be used by people to dry their hands. The concept of a "single use" towel dispenser is thus down-graded to a towel rack for a so-to-speak "common hand towel".
The realization that this cloth towel dispensing system, introduced on a world-wide basis many decades ago, has certain hygienic deficiencies, has in the course of the last few years led to the development of motorized towel dispensers. In these powered models the towel is drawn into or under the towel dispenser by a motor, so that not only the soiled region of the towel resulting from the last hand-drying use is no longer visible, but the towel end hanging out after the roll of clean toweling has been used up also completely disappears inside the towel dispenser.
The disadvantage which all known towel dispensers working with motorized retraction of the towel have in common is, firstly, that the existing towel dispenser must be completely replaced by a new one when it is converted from a non-motorized to a motorized system and, secondly, the motorized-retraction adds considerable expense to the towel dispenser and requires a source of external energy.